Production of amorphous cellulose.



UNITED STATES Patented August 16, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

PRODUCTION OF AMORPHOUS OELLULOSE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 767,822, dated August 16, 1904; Application filed July 16, 1902. Serial No. 115,820. (No specimens.)

To all whom it Jim/y concern.-

Be it known that I, Is1DoR KITSEE, of the city and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Production of Amorphous Cellulose, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the production of amorphous cellulose, and has more special reference to the process wherein a fibrous material is first nitrated and then dissolved with the aid of one of its solvents.

In the production of celluloid, pyroxylin, or other like articles the fibrous material, generally in the form of fine tissue-paper, is immersed in a bath, generally consisting of equal parts of nitric and sulfuric acids, and is left therein till the nitration is completed, and the product then dissolves in either acetone, acetic acid, amyl acetate, or any other like solvent. In the production of celluloid camphor and one of the heavy oils, such as castoroil, is generally intermixed with the celluloid.

My invention has no special reference to I that part of the manufacture wherein special grades of celluloid are produced, and it is therefore unnecessary for me to particularize the difierent steps in such manufacture. My invention is more applicable to the manufacture of such productions where color is no object and where the perfect nitration should be avoided.

I have for a number of years made jars out of amorphous cellulose, and I mostly intermiX the nitrated and then-dissolved cellulose with cellulose in its raw state, such as paper-pulp, and in some instances raw cotton in the form of what is known in the art as fly. This for the reason that the amorphous cellulose intermixed with the crude cellulose gives better results in the production of jars, valves, and like articles than if the dissolved cellulose alone would be used. To obviate the necessity of intermixing these two different kinds of cellulose, I provided the paper to be nitrated on different parts with grease or oil, so that these parts should not be nitrated at all, and in the process of dissolving such paper the resultant production was just what is desired in such articles as jars, valves, &c.,

In the course of experimenting and for the reason of cheapening the article I substitute for the paper as treated with grease newspapers which, as is well-known, are already prepared on part of their surfaces with an oily material, such as printers ink. I subjected these newspapers to the process of nitration and found that whereas those parts which remained unprinted became perfectly nitrated and readily dissolved the parts printed on remained in their original state, thereby providing those fillings which are necessary for the articles above enumerated. I have frequently subjected old newspapers to the process of nitration and always found the resultant product perfectly satisfactory. The great advantage lies therein that, first, the material itself old newspapers-is cheaper than the fibrous material in any other state; second, the employment of old newspapers, or for that matter any printed paper, is an effectual substitute for the process of employing and intermixing raw and unnitrated material with a nitrated one; third, as oily or fatty matter has to be added to the dissolved cellulose for the production of any useful article the fatty or oily ink partially I supplies this need.

I have above stated that my invention is specially adapted to the nitrating process; but it is obvious that this my invention is applicable to the production of amorphous cellulose, no matter if nitrating or other processes are employed.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of producing amorphous cellulose which consists in applying an oily or fatty substance to a portion of the surface of a fibrous material and then subjecting said material to nitration, whereby only such parts as are not provided with said oily or fatty substance are nitrated, the other parts remaining substantially in their original state.

2. The process of producing amorphous cellulose which consists in applying an oily or fatty substance to a portion of the surface of such oily or fatty substance are made soluble and such parts as Were provided With such oily or fatty substance reinain substantially in their original state.

In testimony whereof I hereby sign my name, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses, this 20th day of June, A. D. 1902.

ISIDOR KITSEE.

Witnesses:

EDITH R. STILLEY, CHAS. KREssENBUoH. 

